Why does the Flyer List exist?

The list exists for two reasons:
first, to encourage discussion about all aviation matters,
and secondly to alert your flying colleagues to any news that crops up.

There is a great collective knowledge distributed among the members, but novices, student pilots
and those whose interests are just flourishing should not feel intimidated.
There is a supportive "family atmosphere" among the members.

Who owns the Flyer List?

What subjects are discussed?

This is a two-way mailing list, so in addition to postings of interest from other members,
we would encourage you to ask and answer anything that crops up.
Use the list to communicate with fellow aviators on any aviation-related subject.
Arrange shared flights or to relate flight or aviation-related experiences.
Invite others to fly in to your local airfield.

Although commercial sales pitches are not generally welcomed on the list,
Your experiences of products, especially product comparisons, are useful to others.
You can also use the list if you have any aviation-related equipment to sell on a private basis, including aeroplanes.

This is our aim: to talk about anything that flies, why it does, how it does,
and to learn from one another's experiences.

How do I send to the list?

Why has my posting not appeared?

I prepared my message to the Flyer List, sent it out, and it hasn't appeared.
Other people have sent messages since then, and theirs have appeared.
Why hasn't mine?

This is a large list (around 200 subscribers), and different people use different computers and software.
So, to avoid people getting unreadable or enormously large messages,
there are some "rules" we must abide by and filters to catch messages that break them.

The most common reasons for messages being held or rejected are:

They are too long: the limit is 4,000 characters.
If you quote someone else's message in full, and add yours at the top, there may be several thousand characters below yours.

They contain an attachment (maybe a picture of your favourite aeroplane).
Unfortunately, some antisocial elements have taken to sending viruses as attachments to emails.
Some folks send enormous attachments that take others a very long time to download (even with broadband).
So attachments are "taboo".

They contain HTML (Hypertext Markup Language).
This uses a lot of bandwidth and causes problems with older browsers.
Turn off the HTML when posting to the List.

They contain a Virus warning.
The great majority of "Virus Warnings" on the Internet (but not all!) are "spoofs".
They get millions of people to send them to millions of other people,
and clog up the Internet as well as other peoples' machines.

If any of these reasons apply, your message will be "held" by the message filters.
Eventually, the List Administrators will find your message in the "reject" bin
and, if it hasn't gone out, will probably write to explain what the problem was.
But we're all volunteers and sometimes don't get to look in the bin for several days.

So, correct your message to take out any excessive quoting (look at the end of
the message to see how long it goes on for), make sure it isn't in HTML,
and it isn't about a virus warning, then send it again.

If you don't know how to turn off HTML, write to the Administrators at:
and we'll explain how to do it.

Why haven't I received any messages lately?

If you haven't received any messages for several hours, don't worry.
Sometimes the List server, or the paths to your Internet Service Provider (ISP), or your ISP's computer,
have a bad day and no mail gets transferred for a few hours.

If you haven't had any messages from the List for a day or more, it is likely that your ISP has been having problems.

In this case, messages to you will be bounced back to the List Server for the Administrators to sort out.
Usually, we wait a couple of days before removing people from the List.

We will also write to you about once a week to alert you to the problem,
until you reply or we conclude your address has gone for ever.

If you know your mail was being held up for a day or more,
contact the Administrators and we will check what has happened and fix it.

Please do not send "Test" messages to the List!
That annoys 200 people who are receiving their messages OK.

How many people are on the list?

Currently there are about 200 members, but the majority are passive
(they mostly "lurk", but occasionally "unlurk" when something particularly stirs them).
Around 20 post on a regular basis.
Many of these have very great aviation experience and their responses most helpful to those with a bit less.